Huntingdon driver re-launches campaign highlighting dashboard danger

A former driving instructor from Huntingdon is re-launching his campaign to raise awareness of a potentially life-threatening habit he sees “all-too-often” during the course of his work.

Colin Bennett's safety poster.

Colin Bennett, owner of an airport transfer car hire firm, says he still sees passengers with their feet on the dashboard on a daily basis, despite the dangers of even a low-speed collision occurring.

The Stukeley Meadows resident says that he has spoken to people who have suffered multiple broken bones, including pelvis, knees, and legs because of the force discharged when an airbag is activated while someone has their feet on the dashboard.

Mr Bennett, who clocks up about 72,000 miles annually, told the Hunts Post: “It just seems that so many people haven’t even considered the dangers of having their feet on the dash. I see it all-too-often, almost every day when I go to work.

“It is particularly bad during the summer holidays and I have even seen people with their feet hanging out of the window.”

Since he launched his campaign last year, Mr Bennett said he has been inundated with messages from across the world, including from America and Ireland, and an image he created to go with his campaign is being used widely.

He added: “I have had messages from people in America and, this year, there have been companies and even a fire service who have used my image to highlight the dangers.”

Mr Bennett said that a woman from Ireland, who is now a Facebook friend and fellow campaigner, contacted him directly after the campaign was launched to thank him for raising awareness as the very same happened to her a few years earlier.

As a result of her accident, she had had to have an implant in her forehead owing to fractures to her skull.

Mr Bennett is urging people in Cambridgeshire to spread the word and is happy for them to download or share his image on their own social media platforms which they can do via his business Facebook page or via the blog on his website, www.drivearrive.co.uk.